The People's Republic of Chemicals by Chip Jacobs and William J. Kelly

The People's Republic of Chemicals

by Chip Jacobs and William J. Kelly

Maverick environmental writers William J. Kelly and Chip Jacobs follow up their acclaimed Smogtown with a provocative examinationof China's ecological calamity already imperiling a warming planet. Toxic smog most people figured was obsolete needlessly kills as many as died in the 9/11 attacks every day, while sometimes Grand Canyon-sized drifts of industrial particles aloft on the winds rain down ozone and waterway-poisoning mercury in America.

In vivid, gonzo prose blending first-person reportage with exhaustive research and a sense of karma, Kelly and Jacobs describe China's ancient love affair with coal, Bill Clinton's blunders cutting free-trade deals enabling the US to “export” manufacturing emissions to Asia in a shift that pilloried the West's middle class, Communist Party manipulation of eco-statistics, the horror of cancer villages, the deception of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and spellbinding peasant revolts against cancer-spreading plants involving thousands in mostly-censored melees. Ending with China's monumental coal-bases decried by climatologists as a global warming dagger, The People's Republic of Chemicals names names and emphasizes humanity over bloodless statistics in a classic sure to ruffle feathers as an indictment of money as the real green that not even Al Gore can deny.

A Los Angeles–area author and journalist, Chip Jacobs has reported for the Los Angeles Times, Daily News of Los Angeles, CNN, The New York Times, LA Weekly, and Southland publishing, among other outlets. He lives in Southern California.

Chip Jacobs is the co-author of Smogtown: The Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles and the author of The Vicodin Thieves, The Ascension of Jerry, and Wheeler-Dealer. Jacobs' reporting has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, CNN, Bloomberg View, the Daily News of Los Angeles, LA Weekly and newgeography.com, among other outlets. Jacobs, the recipient of numerous writing commendations, lives in Southern California. Visit chipjacobs.com to learn more.

William J. Kellyis the co-author of Smogtown: The Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles and the author of Home Safe Home. His reporting has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Consumers Digest, Inside Climate News, LA Weekly, and theCalifornia Journal, among other outlets.He was the chief spokesman of South Coast Air Quality Management District, the smog control agency for greater Los Angeles. The author of Home Safe Home and a senior correspondent for California Energy Circuit, he lives in Los Angeles.